Photo: organizers’ materials
The New Left organizes provincial celebrations of Labor Day – May 1, in front of the Revolutionary Deed Monument in Rzeszów.
The Labor Day celebrations are organized by the New Left structures in Rzeszów together with the All-Poland Agreement of Trade Unions. For years, they were organized at the Ghetto Victims Square. This year they will be in front of the Monument to the Revolutionary Act, from 11:00. The Labor Day celebration will be accompanied by the slogan “We want a social Europe!”.
The New Left reminds that May 1, as the International Day of Solidarity of Working People, was chosen as a workers’ holiday by the founding congress of the Second International, meeting in Paris in 1890. The date of May 1 was to celebrate the anniversary of the workers’ strike in Chicago in 1886, brutally suppressed by the police.
Today, Labor Day is celebrated mainly by leftist parties and trade unions around the world. The first Labor Day celebrations in many countries, including Poland, took place in 1890. They were organized both by local trade unions and political parties that included workers’ rights in their programs.
According to available sources, the first Labor Day celebrations in Rzeszów were organized in 1896, in the “Sokół” building, by at least Herman Lieberman, Polish lawyer, socialist activist, MP of the Polish Socialist Party, prisoner of Brest and Minister of Justice in the government in exile of Władysław Sikorski.
May 1 is also the date of Poland’s accession to the European Union. This year marks the 20th anniversary of our EU membership. At noon, “Ode to Joy” – the EU anthem – will be sung in the Market Square, and there will also be a special cake.
redakcja@rzeszow-news.pl
